Ive been looking at photos of car cakes for 2 hours, hoping I could figure out how to do it on my own, but I have a few questions before I get started.

-how to you create the illusion that there is space under the car so that it doesnt look like a low-rider? None of the photos I saw really showed it from a good angle so that I could see how it was done. Is the cake actually raised up from the board? Or maybe do you just carve in a bit at the bottom and cover that part with black fondant?

-How do you do the wheels? I would assume you just carve a space for the tires as you are carving the rest of the cake. Is this how you do it?

-How do you cut neat and straight lines at the bottom of the cars so that no border is needed? Scissors maybe? Or is there some other tool Im not aware of? I usually use a pizza cutter to cut fondant, but if the car is raised I guess I need another way to do this.

Im just really nervous so any advice you have on how to carve a car cake would be really useful.

I was going to start on it tonight, but Im so tired. I had 4 cakes to make today, for 3 deliveries tomorrow. This cake is for Sat. so after my deliveries tomorrow Ill have to come home and make this thing and pull an all nighter Im sure.

I will eagerly look forward to your advice. My carved cakes usually turn out seriously good, but Ive never done a car before and I just want to make sure I dont end up with a disaster because I didnt ask for advice.

Thank you guys.

raised illusion: http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1478285.html

Thank you Doug! I dont have supplies to do it that way though, so Im going to have to figure something else out. This camaro just might end up being a low rider. I dont have any sheet boards on hand or anything because I never do sheet cakes, just round drums. I do have some small pieces of 1/2 foam core I may be able to use....

Hubby says I should just cut the foam core a little smaller than my cake, cover it with black fondant, then set the cake on it and cover it and decorate it like I normally would. That may give me at least a little lift....but I wonder it it could cause the unsupported edges of the cake to break off. I mean, I was thinking maybe 1/2 inch on all sides that wouldnt be supported....that may not be too bad, right? What do you guys think?

Im getting really nervous. I keep seeing all these posts about car cakes being really difficult to do. Honestly I thought it would be one of those things that looks hard but really isnt....but I guess not.

Ok Im off to bed. Ill probably be back on here tomorrow at about 3pm right before I stick the knife in this cake to make sure anyone else doesnt have some wonderful, magical advice for me....

I can pull it off. I know I can. I always do........ That didnt help. Im still nervous. lol

1/2" foam core plenty strong

can even combine both methods --

build up the center "brick" section out of anything -- even foam board scraps or stacked legos!

the posts can also be anything as well

http://sugaredblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-make-3d-car-cake.html

Hope this helps.

Patty*

Hi. I just made a car cake for my son's 5th birthday last week. I made a lemon flavoured monster truck sitting on top of a 12x12 chocolate cake that was iced with chocolate frosting and sprinkled with crushed cookie crumbs to look like dirt. What I did to support the centre of the car was to "glue" with icing 6 wafer cookies together with the same icing of the base it was sitting on. I then covered the cookies with the chocolate icing so you wouldn't notice it when the car was sitting on top. The wafers were at least an inch from the bottom edge of the car cake when it was sitting on top. I used those rectangular sugar cookies that are as light as air. I hope it helps)

For the body of the car you have your stacked sheet cakes on a board, like you normally would. Carve your cake, ice, chill, then cover with fondant. You can still use your pizza cutter because the cake is still flat on the ground. (And yes, you carve out space for the wheel wells.) I covered my car cake in purple fondant (customer's request) and then tucked black fondant in under the wheel wells. After your car's all covered in the fondant, then you just get your fingers in under the cake board, pick up the car and set it on your 1/2 piece of styrofoam. The styrofoam is just a small rectangular piece that is enough to get the car off of the ground. Make sure you glue it down so it doesn't slide all over. Then, once in place, you can stick your tires in the wheel wells. HTH.

These pics helped me when I did my corvette cake.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37331318@N08/sets/72157619119013020/

and this website for blueprints helped get it to scale. I have the link saved for the corvette I did.

http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/cars/chevrolet/24191/view/chevrolet_corvette_c5_2000/

I also used the sugaredblog link that was posted.

Good luck and HTH.

I raise my cake board up with foam core or styrofoam, whatever I have at the time. I use a biscuit cutter to carve out the wheel wells before I ice and fondant the car. I agree that you leave the car on the work surface until it is fondanted, allowing you to use the pizza cutter, and then you raise it up and add the details, wheels and tires, etc. I would recommend that you make the tires first out of fondant or a fondant gumpaste mix and allow them to dry while you are working on the rest of the cake. The more detail you add, the more realistic it looks but don't overwhelm yourself with the little stuff.

The lightning mcqueen cake I did is not raised because we wanted the low to the ground look for this car. the firetruck and gto in my pics are raised. The firetruck and gto both have working head and tail lights and the firetruck has a woking light bar across the top. I am really starting to love car cakes and I really encourge everyone who has an interest to try it.

Go for it and have fun!!!

wow, guys. Thank you! I feel a little more confident now! Im leaving for deliveries now and will be back by 3pm, so we'll see how it goes! Thank you thank you!

Whew! I feel great! I got my car template all cut out, about to stick that knife in. I think it's gonna be good.

One more question though, When you are doing a double layer of fondant (for the windows in the car) how do you keep the fondant from sticking to each other so you can cut out the piece to remove? I think I saw something before about putting plastic on top of the first layer of fondant, and then laying the second layer on top...then just sliding it out after you remove the fondant piece. That was for one of those cakes with characters popping out the top. But will that same technique work for this? It seems like it may not because the space ill be cutting isnt very big. Im worried I may rip the fondant trying to take the plastic out. But then again Ive never used that technique so maybe it would be easier than Im thinking it is. Any advice for that?

When I did my car cake I used modeling chocolate for that bottom layer and the top layer of fondant didn't stick to it. Maybe, if you're using the two layers of fondant you could do an extra heavy dusting of cornstarch on the first layer, then when you place the 2nd over it wouldn't stick as badly? Not sure. I'm certain you'll do a great job whatever technique you decide to use!

I did fondant on top of fondant. I made sure I had cornstarch brushed on the bottom layer(window) and then layed the next piece on top. Once the window was cut I carefully brushed water under the top layer to get it to stick around the window. I hope that makes sense.

I guess it's ok for a first time. It was pretty difficult for me to get the look I wanted. I guess this is just going to take practice....but at least it wasnt a disaster!!!!! Thanks to you guys!

I even got the thing raised up. I used fondant for the windows instead of the modeling chocolate.....actually, I TRIED using the modeling chocolate....but my cake was way too cold still and the chocolate got so hard I couldnt shape it to the cake. So I just put fondant on it and heavily dusted it with cornstarch. Worked just fine.

Thank you so much for all your help!

It looks awesome!!! Good job.

You did an AWESOME job! Great work!

Looks AMAZING!!

Aww thanks! It doesnt really look like a Camaro, but I'm thrilled it even looks like a car at all! I think she will love it.

Everything I am able to accomplish is because of you guys. I've only been doing fondant cakes for about a year, never went to pastry school....I'm able to pull it off because of your help. I love you guys! Thank you again!

Very very nice!!!!

Love it!!! Awesome job.

I just want to say thanks so much for the blueprint website info. My gosh, that was sooo HELPFUL!! I've been wondering where Mike McCarey got his drawing from. I LOVE his video and I love this site! Everyone is always so helpful! Your car looks great btw.